History of Strathtay 427 (DFP 492Y)
New in 1983 to Trimdon Motor Services is this Leyland Tiger. When new it carried a 49 seat Plaxton coach body.
This vehicle has had a rather colourful past and has been used by number or operators. After Trimdon MS it moved onto Bleanch of Hetton-Le-Hole in 1986. Moving on again from there a year later to Wales where it was reregistered 209 OVT.
Again only lasting a year with an operator, it moved to TRS in Leicester, being registered again at the same time to DFP 492Y in March 1988. April 1988 saw the bus gain the registration MIA 2032 but this only lasted a month before being registered YOI 139.
In December 1989 the vehicle saw yet another registration, DBZ 918, when it was sold to Baldwin in Sheffield. Sold on again in January 1991 to Kingsman of Matlock. Yorkshire Terrier took over the Kingsman business in the mid 90’s and the vehicle would remain in South Yorkshire becoming part of the Yorkshire Traction Group.
Once part of the Traction Group, the vehicle would be moved to Strathtay as their 427. It is from here that the new East Lancs bus body would be fitted in June 2000. This was part of a project undertaken by Strathtay to rebody six Tigers and two B10M’s and was designed to prolong the life and be more suited to service work for buses with good strong chassis’.
Stagecoach ownership would come in December 2005 with their takeover of the Traction Group. The bus becoming 25815 in the national numbering system. After serving the Scottish people for a number of years, the vehicle was reregistered to DFP 492Y and sold to Opperman of Lye Green in April 2008.
After this the vehicle would pass through several more operators and be reregistered a few more times before finally being preserved in 2017. Initially preserved in South Wales, it changed hands and is now on long term loan to the SYTT.
The plan is to restore this vehicle to its Strathtay condition.
Owner - Private